Draygon Inferno | Book 2 | ✔️

Chapter Seven

           Siobhan stood in front of her horse Wyx, reins in hand, as she stared down into the narrow stretch of flowers spanning the glade at the edge of the forest. Though the glade stretched for miles length wise, the width was barely a breaths length before it merged back into the forest. It wouldn't take them a full day to cross through the flowers and be back within the tree line. Another day after that, they'd be at the base of the hills that would eventually converge with the frost covered ice blocks of Esa'drago.

"Why are you looking at those flowers like they're going to eat us? Is there Crystillium in them?" Wren stood beside her, stroking the snout of his horse Bob.

She still couldn't get over the fact he'd given his horse such a simple, common name. Her lips twitched but couldn't form the smile she wanted to give at the thought of his naivety. It was a breath of fresh air at times, but also an annoyance when she had to explain every minute detail of the highlands she'd grown up with. Every native knew of the pixie glades and the risks within.

At first glance the glades were nothing out of the ordinary. A rainbow of flowers nestled in a gully splitting the small evergreen forest in half. It was the smallest of the three heavily wooded areas in the highlands, with the elf woods to the north west being the largest. But of the three forests, it was the one most avoided. To enter this forest was to risk coming across the pixies and the tricks they played with a person's mind.

Siobhan heard legends of the strongest warriors dropping to their knees because of the pixies. When one got inside someone's head, it was almost impossible to know truth from fiction. Though she was confident she held no secrets deep in her heart, she couldn't say the same of Wren. There was plenty of chance for him to hold her ill will after what happened with Natalia back with the High Mages. The love of his life had perished because of the bracelet that wielded any mage into a soulless-being controlled by the Vanguard.

While Siobhan hadn't been the one to enslave Natalia, she had reminded Wren often the end result would be as it was. If she were in his shoes, she was positive she'd hold a lot of resentment. They tried to deny the inevitable, and it cost Wren his world. Siobhan could relate in more ways than she wanted to.

She glanced to him as he scratched the scraggly facial hair now claiming most of his baby face. Greasy tangled knots of hair hung over his eyes, giving him the most unpleasant appearance of a vagrant Siobhan had ever seen. It was as if self-grooming no longer mattered to him. Dirt clung to his nails like it were creating its own eco system. He'd probably smell just as bad if she hadn't insisted he at least wipe down in the morning after his evening sweats.

Wren was changing far too fast and she wasn't sure she liked it. And she worried about who he was changing into.

"It isn't the flowers that are the concern." Ayla stepped onto a boulder and scanned the glade. "It's those who live among the flowers."

"At the risk of being called a moron again, care to elaborate?"

"The pixies hate humanities ability to lie to each other. To them, lying ruins their happiness and pixies are always happy." Siobhan smiled. "You really are an idiot, Wren."

He rolled his eyes. "And you're a bitch. We can't always be pleasant people to be around."

"Touché." She chuckled. "Pixies value honesty and they have the ability to bring out the truth in one's heart that even the person never knew was there. Doesn't matter if it's a half truth or not, if it's in there they will bring it out and revel in the chaos it creates."

"So if you have any hidden feelings toward either me or Ice Fang, now is the time to get them out," Ayla added.

Wren furrowed his brow and pursed his lips. "I think you're both frustratingly arrogant to the point you could be sisters and I can't believe I thought traveling with you would be better than staying with the High Mages." He clicked his tongue. "Nope I think I'm good. Sack up, ladies, let's do this."